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Story: Behind The Songs of The Phoenix Story

My new concept album has just come out! You can get it here! This feels like the perfect time and place to talk about the story behind each of the songs and how they came together to create the concept album that became The Phoenix Story. So we’ll go in order from the start.

Off The Market

I wrote this song about three or four years ago with one of my guitar players. He was playing this little riff and then I said, “What if it was a little edgier?” and that’s how the signature guitar riff from Off The Market was born! After that the words just flowed right out of me. The initial music was so sassy it wasn’t hard to tell what the song wanted to be. Once the song was finished I didn’t think about it again until one summer I was putting together the setlist for a festival I was playing. I found the song and thought, “this would be great!”. After we played it at the show multiple people came up to the merch table to ask where to buy the song! That’s when I knew it had to be released. Off The Market is about when you see someone for the first time and have that instant connection. You both know there’s something there and it’s just a matter of time before your paths cross.

Bad Habit

Bad Habit was such a fun song to write. We were tossing ideas around and then someone said, “What if someone was like a bad habit? Something you like, but know it’s just not good for you?” and as soon as the words “bad habit” were in the room, we knew that was the hook for the song. After that the song was done in about 20 minutes! Bad Habit is a fun spin on “bro country”. It’s the same concept, but sung by a girl which felt so fresh considering the heavy male influence that has been happening in country music for the last couple years.

Earthquake

Earthquake is a very special song to me. When it was written it was never intended to be about a romantic relationship. It was from real experiences that I was having at the time and I wanted to remind myself that I was going to get past the betrayal. Of course, this is exactly what happened, but it made me feel so much better to write Earthquake and give myself an anthem to hold onto. It turns out that lots of other people needed an “earthquake” anthem of their own! From the early days of playing the song out at shows people have been reaching out to tell me that the song means a lot to them. That helped them with something they were going through also. This is the greatest compliment as a songwriter; to give people a message they need. In terms of The Phoenix Story, Earthquake is the turning point of the album, it’s about taking back your own power and becoming the hero in your own story.

Siren

Siren came from the idea of the sirens in the Odyssey. It’s story of a warrior who leaves his home and experiences all sorts of adventure and peril while trying to return home. The Sirens are beautiful women who live on an island. The women have the power of luring sailors to their death. Their enchanted song draws the sailors close to the jagged rocks where they can get shipwrecked. Siren was a song that I started, but that didn’t really get finished right away. I ended up finishing it in a hotel room in Saskatoon Saskatchewan at the Canadian Country Music Awards. I wanted a song that embodied the idea that someone can hurt you and lose you but they’ll never be able to truly forget what they did or what they lost. It will live on with them like the Sirens from the Odyssey and can cause ultimate destruction with the sweetest song.

Told You So

I knew that The Phoenix Story was going to have some dark undertones, and so wanted it to end on a sassy note just like it started. Ending it this way really embodied the concept of a phoenix; a mythical bird that ages and then bursts into flames only to be reborn again from it’s own ashes. Writing Told You So started with the title and happened while I was driving from one gig to another. It was another song that got finished mostly in a hotel room before a show. Instead of telling you too much about Told You So, I’m going to suggest you listen to it. I can almost guarantee that it will make you smile.